YourTeacher.com (formerly Algebra Classmate)

This is one of my 100 Top Picks!

See the complete review in 100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum.

I selected Algebra Classmate as one of my Top Picks, but the company has undergone some major improvements in just the short time since my book was published. One of the most significant is their name change to YourTeacher.com. Also, at the time of my review, only Pre-Algebra and Algebra I courses were available, and they were sold only as CD-ROM sets. Now, they have added Geometry and Algebra II, and they have moved exclusively to online delivery for their multimedia courses.

A free demo lesson at YourTeacher.com's website will give you a good idea how the courses work before you subscribe. Also, they offer a "$5 for 3 days" starter subscription that allows you to have a student actually try it out at nominal cost. Subscriptions for homeschoolers are by the month. With a single subscription, you get access to all four courses, so this might be a bargain if you have two or more high schoolers and need more than one of the courses. However, subscriptions provide only a single student name/access code, so you might have trouble distinguishing and tracking student progress if more than one child is taking the same course at the same time. This isn't a problem if they are taking different courses simultaneously.

These are complete courses, although YourTeacher.com has provided a correlation of lessons to texts commonly used in public schools for students who might use YourTeacher as a supplement. Lessons are presented in a video screen on the computer with course creator Mike Maggart or another teacher leading each lesson on a whiteboard. (You will need your computer speakers or a headset to listen to the audio for the presentation.) A "notes" section, viewed by pushing a button on the lesson screen, details the primary concepts of the lesson and can be printed out for reference and review. Practice problems are also provided (along with answers for self checking). Then there's a self test for each lesson that is automatically corrected. Scores for these self-tests are recorded and can be referenced by the parent/teacher. In addition, each lesson has a "deep thought" problem for those needing an extra challenge.

Lessons are grouped into chapters and units, with another quiz at the end of each unit. Lessons are very thorough and offer a number of ways for students to learn and practice the material. Explanations are excellent. All these features make this one of the most truly "independent-learning" high school math courses available.

On a personal note, a friend of mine who teaches "continuing education" for students who struggle with learning in the regular classroom, raved about these courses and has now used them with a number of students.